Clonix/Nov and Windows 8(.1) issues.

[Diego Diaz]

Hi all,

As previous Windows systems are reaching their end-of-life, some users are facing (fighting?) with the infamous Win8 (Metro UI, 'upgraded' drivers, non-supported devices, etc.)

In the past months I received several reports of users who can't get their Clonix/Nov gear working on Win8 environment.

I had no Win8 system myself, therfore I'm affraid I wasn't of much help about these issues then.

Finally, once back home in Canary Islands I've got a Win8 laptop, and troubleshot the problem involving Prolific driver.

In short, the Win7 driver (ver. 3.3.11.152 dated 2010) and included in the SW archive, is the one that works.

The problem arises when Win8 decides that newer-is-better and 'upgrades' it to the 2014 built-in version; which prevents Prolific chip PL2303 from being properly recognized.

This affects both the USB programmer (K149-BC) and the USB-41 interface module.

The 'solution' I've found, though not quite elegant, is fairly simple: rename such 2014 driver, or more specifically, it's .INF file, which avoids Win8 to find it.

Proceed with Win7 driver installation and plug the USB programmer. Check Device Manager to find out which COM port has been assigned. Open microbrn.exe and apply port number accordingly.

Make sure, the "K149-BC board connected" message shows up in the corresponding field and disconnect the programmer.

So far, so good. Now if you restart your Win8 PC and plug the programmer again, you'll see that nasty yellow warning in Device Manager's window, noting that it is no longer recognized.

It's time to get rid of the 'updated' 2014 driver.

Drivers can be found under Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository. There you'll find a couple of folders which names begin with 'ser2pl.inf_amd64_...'.

Into these folders you'll find the driver files. Keep the ones from 2010 unchanged and rename (or add a second extension) to the 'ser2pl.inf' file dated 03/09/2014.

As far as I've tested it, no further issues have happened, and since Win8 claims no longer support for PL2303 chip, it is unlikely that any update will change this in the future.

Hope you find this info useful and please let me know of the results in case you decide to apply it to your system.

Best wishes from Canary Islands.

Diego.

[Geoff Quickfall]

Well that explains it!

Will let you know how it works out here on the west coast.

Thanks Diego.

Geoff

[Jurgen Keller]

Until recently I still used a custom made serial programmer to burn my CLONIX/NoVRAM module. Now I've updated my CLONIX programming environment to an USB programmer and ran into driver problems. After some struggling it runs fine now, and I can confirm that the Win7 driver (ver. 3.3.11.152) runs properly on my Windows 10 Pro computer. I didn't had to make changes in the Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository directory, maybe because I used the uninstall option when removing a newer (non-working) driver. Anyway, after several reboots it seems to be stable.

Compared to my old (serial) programming environment, using USB is MUCH faster, and CLONIX rocks again! :-)

[Diego Diaz]

Hi Jürgen,

Good to know you managed to get your USB programmer running.

Enjoy your 41's and have a nice week. :-D

Diego.

[mfleming]

Hi everyone,

I recently encountered this same driver-related problem after moving to a new Windows 10 machine and finding myself unable to program my NoV64. Diego pointed me to this thread and I was able to successfully load the right driver to communicate with the PIC programmer.

I accomplished this by going to the Device Manager, right-clicking on the Prolific USB to Serial port device and choosing Properties from the list. In the Driver tab is a button labeled Roll Back Driver. Pressing the button will pop up a dialog asking why you wish to do so (pick from a list or add your own reason!) then press OK. You are back to the 2010 driver and all is well. The change survives a system restart.

Hope this saves some time and trouble for others,
~ Mark